The motto of the modern Olympics is "Citius, Altius, Fortius". Michael Phelps won 8 Gold medals in the Beijing Olympics, with 7 of them world records and the other an Olympic record, surpassing the record 7 Gold medals and 7 world records won by Mark Spitz in the Munich Olympics of 1972. 8 G (7 WR + 1 OR) > 7 G (7 WR)
Two of Phelps' victories – one relay and one individual – were literally almost unbelievable, when he or his teammate out-touched the 'sure' winner by 1/100th of a second. Interesting coincidence that whereas 7 is a lucky number in the west, the number 8 is auspicious in China (which is why the games started on the 8th day of the 8th month of 2008). Spitz won in Germany, where his last name means 'peak' or 'top'. Maybe there's a Chinese homophone for Phelps meaning 'gilding the lily'.
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